Details

For your academic essay, you’ll want to respond to one of the following options. Make sure that you’ve consulted all of the handouts I’ve prepared to help you in writing your essay:how to work with sources, how to assemble aworks cited, what anacademic film essay lookslike, thecriteriayour paper will be evaluated against.

You’ll also want to show me a first version some time week nine, during office hours or a scheduled appointment. You can get some extra credit points by taking your essay to the tutor center and getting feedback from a tutor. I recommend working with Gail Stevenson or someone she recommends.

Options:

1. Using what Blaser says about noir and the nuclear family, analyze Drive,Chinatown, or Memento.
2. Drawing on Pratt’s discussion of the deconstructive narrative, analyze MementoorGilda.
3. What themes or narrative elements show up inMementothat are identified by Spicer and Schrader? You can also use Spicer & Schrader to analyze DetourorGun Crazy.
   
4. Using both Blaser pieces, analyze Natalie from Memento.
5. Drawing on the information in Dick about reception studies and discussions we’ve had in class about the myriad issues that affect our viewing experience AND modeling a response like that of Leonard Michael’s essay, “The Zipper,” describe and analyze your own reaction/viewing experience of any one of the following:Memento, Chinatown, Drive,
6. Using Pratt’s argument that thefemme fataleis a paranoid and misogynistic version of femininity from the perspective of male protagonist and male spectator, analyze Lilith fromNightmare Alleyand Annie Laurie fromGun Crazy.Which character better qualifies as the fatal woman that Pratt describes?
7. Drawing on Hordes’ discussion of the male protagonist, Hirsch’s observations about alienation, Spicer’s assertions about paranoia and Freudian motifs, decide which of the following is the clearest embodiment of a quintessential malenoirhero: Bart inGun Crazy, Stan inNightmare Alley, Al inDetour,or Lenny in Memento.
8. I may add one or two more options by the end of week seven, but this list should give you an idea of what kinds of essays I’m asking you to write.